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Karin Madsen
Personality As an person who's seen the good and bad of the criminal justice system, Karin understands that in all things balance is key. Yes, you can go out and start shooting every criminal you see but in all honesty that makes you no better than them. She is not one for vigilantism and believes the system works as long as you understand that sometimes things will go a way you don't want them to. In those cases, you have to shrug and move on otherwise why are you living the way you are. This is almost the view she takes to her magical studies. Life is a journey and understanding that journey requires a sense of balance and order to existing. Only in finding inner and outer peace can one truly hope to become one with the universe and gain any hope of achieving Ascension. It was by chance that Karin didn't end up becoming one of the witch hunters of the world. Her induction into the supernatural world by a professional relationship with a Mage along with the grooming of Akashic Brothers since she was 16 kept her from going down that route. Her Awakening, an event that is still being studied by her Brothers, gave her new meaning and direction in helping those less fortunate than herself. More than anything she wishes to protect the Sleepers from those who would take advantage of their ignorance. Paradigm Thought creates one's reality, as your mind sees, so your body is; this is why magick comes from thought, because you're bending reality. Mages literally think a different way, they have reached a state of Enlightenment, using more of their consciousness (which is to say, their true form), and Seekings and Ascension are about using more and more of your consciousness until Ascension would, one assumes, involve becoming one with the universe. Anyone could do this if they can train their mind and go inward. Karin's magick is often fueled by the melding of mental thought being vocalized through reality. There is definite action in her magic even going so far as requiring her perceptive skills to hold a sense of concentration. Her more explosive effects are often fueled through more devastating actions. Most notably her martial arts skills. Beyond that most of her abilities are fueled through physical action. As she believes the body is the housing for all her magical ability she feels that an expression of that housing is the best way to release the energy stored within. Avatar Sheet Freebie Expenditures :Attributes: Charisma 5, Intelligence 5 (Total: 10) :Abilities: ::Talents: Athlectics 2 Brawl 2, Insight 2 (Total: 6) ::Skills: Martial Arts 4, Meditation 2 (Total: 6) :: Knowledges: Investigation 4, Law 2, Occult 2 (Total: 8) :Backgrounds: Resources 1 (Total: 1) :Advantages: ::Arete: 4 ::Willpower: 1 ::Spheres: Life 7, Prime 7 (Total: 14) :Merits: 5 :Flaws: (7) :Total: 46 Expertises & Specialties See House Rules for rules on Specialties and Expertises. Merits & Flaws Explain all your merits and flaws here, should they need a more in-depth explanation. Backgrounds Explain all your backgrounds here, should they need a more in-depth explanation. History Karin was born the only daughter in a family of four children. Her father was a construction worker and her mother a nurse. Their lifestyle could be considered middle-class. As this was the case, the largest concern for Karin growing up was fending off the wrath of her three older brothers. Over time, she ended up deciding that instead of attempting to fight off the boys she had to think like they did and thus adopted a tom-boyish nature. Throughout elementary school she realized that if the bullies and other mean kids understood that you would not tolerate their teasing they would leave you alone. This attitude stuck with her throughout her school years. That is until her 15 birthday. As usual birthdays for the Madsen family were a family affair. The family would spend an evening together and treat the birthday boy (or girl) to their favorite meal. However, this evening Connor Madsen, Karin's father was no where to be found. The family stayed up through the night waiting. It was not until morning that they received the news. As Connor was walking home from his work site a drunk driver swerved and hit him. The impact of the car instantly killed the man. This devastated the Madsen family, all except Karin. Karin was angry. Karin was really angry. She began to take her frustration out on anyone. Friends, family, even members of her school faculty started to receive physical manifestations of her anger. In other words, fights. By the start of her sophomore year of high school, it was clear that Karin was going to need a new outlet for her grief or she would not be able to continue attending school. Her counselor suggested that she take up martial arts. He explained that the discipline and the meditative way of living could help Karin work through her pain at a pace that may deter her from any more explosive outbursts. So Karin's mother enrolled her in an aikido dojo near the school and changed her daughter's life forever. She found a new lifestyle at that dojo. The meditative ways that her sensei taught helped her find peace and clarity and when combined with the more martial activities gave her an outlet for any lingering anger she might have. With further training her grades excelled and her family life smoothed out. High school ended and Karin was ready for college. Having already applied and been accepted to the University of Illinois in Chicago she spoke with her sensei. She expressed that she wanted to continue her studies and her training. he understood as much and told her and recommended a specific dojo in the heart of the city. He praised them for having a similar training method as his own and that she would further her enlightenment if she took up her art there. She took his advice when she arrived in Chicago and found his assessment to be more than correct. The instructors understood what she needed and took the steps to see that her desires were met. College was fairly uneventful. Karin found success in her classes and furthered her self-defense and spiritual quest through the dojo. She graduated with a Bachelors in Criminal Justice. Her choice of study sprang from a desire to make certain no one else had to go through the struggles her family had to go through concerning the loss of her father. But something was lacking in what she heard from the simple routes of a police officer. She needed more, she needed to make a difference on a higher level. That is why she applied to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Again, her sensei offered a recommendation as to where she should continue her enlightenment, going so far as to say if she wanted to excel she should seek the dojo he offered. While the added comment concerned her to a degree, she trusted the judgment of her sensei and upon arrival in the small town of Quantico, sought a place in the dojo. Again, the familiarity in style and ease of insertion helped her along her way. The Academy was everything Karin hoped it would be. The challenges she faced in the training and the classes gave her the edge she was looking for. The 21 weeks she was there she relished and absorbed every bit of information she could. She actually felt like she was getting ready to make a definite difference in the world. She would succeed and make sure that the people of America were safe and could rest assured that Karin Madsen was thinking of them an their future. Vigilantism within the system was her way. After graduation and her introductory period she received her first true assignment. An outbreak of murders had started appearing in New Orleans. The victims were often drained of blood and twisted in grotesque manners. The local authorities, feeling over their heads in this psychopath's spree called in the assistance of the Bureau. Her job was the lend the resources of the Bureau and assist the local authorities in the apprehension of this murderer. Upon learning what she could and looking over the case file she headed out. She had noticed the title the local police have given him, "Vampire Killer" and thought it was a joke. If only she had been wrong. After a couple of months with no leads she finally had one. An unmarked envelope reached her mailbox at the field office in New Orleans showing a detailed plan of a warehouse near the docks and the words, "He's Here" written in sharpie on it. She was somewhat desperate to prove herself she took the lead at face value. Amassing the force and getting things coordinated downtown was simple. In little time the building was surrounded. She took a small task force in with her and not long after entering the building they were met with heavy gunfire. Deciding to split up and maybe surround the man the task force when separate ways. Karin headed upstairs and somehow found herself behind the man. She took a step and the madman started to turn. He had a gun and she had only one option, she fired. The shot it him in the head and he fell over the railing he was resting on. Then he got up... and bolted for the exit and he was fast. He sprinted out the back exit and somehow managed to get past the officers there. Karin and a few others who witnessed his inhuman survival followed. As the man rounded a corner there was nothing except a black car speeding away. Being far from backup they could not follow. After a few weeks the killings stopped and it was assumed that the local mob took the man out. As no evidence could be found the case was officially closed and the force moved on. Karin was not so accepting. She was certain she shot the man in the head and that he had fallen dead 20 feet. She started digging into files and heavily investigating the tip. She traced it to an employee of a very influential business in town. She tried to get in to talk with the employee and even the CEO of the business and was met with wall after wall of red tape. Knowing a dead end when she saw one, she decided to file it away for now and move on with her assignments. She enrolled in another dojo to help her keep up with meditation and physical endurance and skill. Surprisingly the sensei's were familiar with her previous instructors and the style and feel of training was nearly identical. She was more than happy with this and kept with it doing more and more to reach a path of peace and inner happiness. Months passed and more cases went by only a few seemed strange to Karin. One involved a rash sighting of wolves in the city and a few police officers were killed. It was shut and explained by a few large rabid wolves killed by a couple of concerned hunters. Another involved a streak of murders in which the victims seemed to drink hydrochloric acid, melting their internal organs. It was put away to poisoning and linked to a different killer who used poison who was apprehended. Then the big one came. A string of kidnappings had started up. What was odd about it was that the parents claimed to have seen their children immediately before the disappearances, some even occurred at home and showed no signs of forced entry or exit. As if the children were snatched out of midair. With no leads and no clue as to where to go. Karin decided it was time to go to some of the more unconventional sources for information. She started hitting up some of the new age circuits and a time and time again a name started turning up: Samuel Dalton. He was supposedly an expert in the supernatural and could be contacted for consultations regarding such things. So Karin sought him out and found him. Karin found Samuel to be...eccentric is the best word for it. At first. As he began to shed light on how these kidnappings could have happened she began to understand that here was a man of keen intellect and intense knowledge of some of the more esoteric means of getting things done. Whether good or bad, he knew his stuff. Using the information he gave her she was able to track down a cult who was led by a local psychologist who was in fact responsible for the kidnappings. As time moved on Karin found herself turning to Sam more often with her cases. There were just too any things she could not explain by conventional means. Sometimes there were things that Sam would withhold information on and while he was not actually committing a crime it still caused friction between them n a professional level. Over time the two became friends and that was when she cornered him. A decision that would end her life as she knew it. A exhibition of world art was happening at a local gallery. Vincent Du Paul a renowned French artist was being showcased. The primary job of the FBI there was the ensure the safety of the international artist's pieces. Simple security detail. One evening a theft of nearly all the pieces occurred. The guards saw nothing, claiming that one moment the pieces were there and the next they weren't. However, each of them did give indication of "lost time." When Karin met with Du Paul to ask him questions she found him drained and laconic. It was quite apparent that this was no ordinary attack and that there were no ordinary perpetrators behind things. It was time to go to Sam and find out what he could tell her. At first he was quite reluctant to explain what he understood. He couched it in the warning that these sort of people were too dangerous. Well, he knew better than to tell her that and she let him know it. She demanded to know what was really going on and that he tell her everything he knew about it. To her surprise he did. He told her everything. The robbery and assault on Du Paul was the work of faeries. Extremely dark faeries. They took the artist's work and drained him of all the creativity he had, ever. They were apprehended an the case was settled, couched in robbery and assault. However, that wasn't what was on Karin's mind. It was everything else that was in the world that did. Vampires, Faeries, Werewolves, everything that you thought were just tales to frighten children were real. The worse part was that her friend was one of them. Sam was a Mage. A person who could do magic and not card tricks. He could bend reality to his will at least in small increments. Ever worse than that was the fact that he was convinced she was capable of the same. But he wasn't the one who could teach her. He thought that speaking about this to her instructors at the dojo would open up some doors and that if she wanted to help people that she should look into things. It wasn't Sam's pressuring that led her to the dojo that evening. It was the thought that with this power she could actually face these evils and help people on a larger scale. She entered the dojo and talked to her sensei. After telling him what she felt he smiled. Apparently all of her sensei over the past going all the way back to high school were waiting for this day. She was ready to Awaken, as he called it, t the new world. She underwent a ritualistic meditation, herbs were burned and soft simple music was played. She was told to visualize her true self and connect with it. She tried and tried and tried until there. She saw herself but which wasn't what they said it would be but when she opened her eyes everything was different. She could see and feel everything around her. All her senses had been heightened and her perception of things was enhanced to near microscopic degrees. When she was finished it was morning and she was a Mage. Things were different after that. Her work became almost secondary, but it didn't suffer because of the training. If anything, it became easier. Her powers let her decipher and see things in such a way that she was able to puzzle out evidence in way she never before thought possible. With a simple look and some concentration she was able to figure out whether or not someone was lying. With a touch she could find what weapon was used for the brutal murder of 10 people. She still kept in contact with Sam as his powers were more than superior to her own but some things were just not necessary. In addition, she knew that some of the cases that floated across her desk were not the work of regular people. The supernatural community was open to her now and with it came all the evils associated with them. These were the cases she found most interesting. A slaughter of random people with no discernible connection that led to a pack of werewolves, or the twisted killing of a select group by a vampire. Even the work of the evil Magi gave her a thrill as they were increasingly difficult to pin down and stop. But her time in New Orleans was to be cut short by a power no one easily stop. Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans and with it the field offices of the FBI there. Karin was transferred to San Francisco to assist in a break up of a Yakuza war. She found another dojo associated with the Akashic Brotherhood and trained as hard as ever. Without the assistance Samuel was able to give her (they had gone separate ways after the hurricane), she needed to be stronger if she wanted to help the people who weren't able to protect themselves from the more powerful supernaturals out there. Her first growth happened suddenly and without much notice. She was after a madman who used robotics to do his dirty work. Her team had tracked down the madman to his warehouse in the industrial district. Entering the building set of the security system and let loose a robot that rivaled the firepower of a small army. Bullets had little effect on the machine and grenades only gave it pause to realign it's targeting system. Three of Karin's men had died before Karin knew she had to destroy the thing and stop this psychopath. She drew on her will and felt something shift, she felt the world bend and she knew the next bullet in her gun would finish the robot. She fired, he aim true and as the bullet hit there was a screech of metal scraping against metal and then the machine fell to the ground motionless and shut down. They were able to arrest and (with the assistance of some of the higher powered Akashic's of her dojo) make sure the man did not cause any more problems. After things had calmed down and the reports had been filed she questioned her instructor on the meaning of her increase in power. She was under the impression that that happened in dream quests and was based upon introspective study. Her mentor pondered on the meaning for a while and came to the assumption that her Inner Self was a true reflection of her Outer Self and that through real events it was possible that she could augment her abilities simply from imposing her will upon reality with enough force to break through to a higher level of Awakening. Recently she was partnered with a fellow agent. Jacob Riese was cynical, sometimes rude, and well trained. He was also a Mage. The two of them worked together well. His keen intellect with her physical skills complimented each other in ways that neither one of them expected. Cases were easily solved and filed and over time the two of them became friends in a comrade-in-arms sort of way. While they were both aware that nothing more could probably ever surface through their partnership they were content with the situation as it was. After the current cases in San Francisco cleared up they received new orders. They were to go to the Crystal Springs office and deal with a certain investigation that seemed to have some rather odd elements. Etc If you want you can add in things like playlist, or other character information here. Category:Character Archive